What a fantastic day we had! We were welcomed onto Omaka Marae (powhiri) and learned all about the parts of the Wharenui and the local legends. We shared kai for morning tea and then looked at all the amazing carvings, murals, woven panels (tukutuku) and kowhaiwhai patterns. Finally Mr Robertson read a karakia and we sang a waiata.We have learned so much from this amazing experience.Thank you to our lovely parents helpers.

This week has seen us running through a Powhiri with Whaea Rita in preparation for our Marae visit next week. She was very impressed with the way we all showed respect and conducted ourselves in a calm manner.

We have begun constructing a recount of our favourite moment from Fundamentals – be prepared to be blown away by the careful description, suspense and excitement of our moments.

In maths we are beginning to tackle multiplication and division… but never fear, they look very much like bags of sweets and groups of children!!! Ask your child to explain. ; )

Challenge:How many words with the suffix –ist ( which changes the name of a subject into a profession)

In the pool

On the courts

It’s all done! They’re all finished! Our poems, our wharenui’s, our checklists! Phew! We can start next week with a clean slate.

We had a fantastic visit from Whaea Rita on Wednesday. She shared her amazing knowledge with us in preparation for our Marae visit in Week 9. She’ll be back again in Week 8 to run through the Powhiri with us all.

Please remember we have Fundamental Skills next week so your child will need their swimming togs on Monday and to be wearing suitable clothing.

Challenge:How many words with the suffix -ness (which turns verbs into nouns) can you add to our google doc?(Apologies to those who went looking and couldn’t find this last week and well done to those who came up with a solution on their own!)

As we learned about shapes, we had to justify the names we gave them by showing our buddies which lines were the same length or parallel or not, as the case may be. This led us to some really interesting discussions and explanations.